Oil based flavors are used as ingredients in dry mix food bases. The dry food base is used, for example, for liquid food products such as soup bases or gravy mixes. These food bases are mixed with warm liquids such as water or milk and, if necessary, heated to form the liquid food product. The dry food base may also be a seasoning mix which is typically used by sprinkling it onto other food products.
The oil based flavor is, for example, an oil prepared by thermal treatment of fat, oil or fatty acids. Many oil based flavors are sensitive to heat and susceptible to oxidation. In order to prolong the stability of such flavors in commercial products, it is known to trap the oil based flavor in starch products or encapsulations.
Despite these procedures, it has been found that such products deteriorate and generate off-flavors when stored for long periods, for example a year or more. In particular, when the encapsulated oil is part of a dry mix, the encapsulated oil has been found to interact with other ingredients in the dry food base, and deterioration of the oil based flavor will accelerate. Dried soups and gravy bases or seasonings mixes usually include hydrolyzed proteins. The presence of hydrolyzed proteins in such products has been found to have a deteriorating effect on the encapsulated oil. Thus, improvements in this area are desired.